By Jahabar Sadiq, The Malaysian Insider

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s latest sodomy charge is the result of a “set- up job” which the politician “walked into”, according to an Australian daily’s exclusive of a WikiLeaks revelation.

The Sun-Herald’s exclusive yesterday said a leaked US State Department cable revealed that “Singaporean intelligence officials told their Australian counterparts that Anwar engaged in the conduct for which he is accused, a claim he has steadfastly denied”.

“Australia’s Office of National Intelligence also states the conduct was the result of entrapment by Dr [sic] Anwar’s enemies,” reported the newspaper, which is part of the Sydney Morning Herald group.

The WikiLeaks website has released some 250,000 diplomatic cables from United States that reveal explosive private views across the world. Nearly 1,000 are related to Malaysia, including candid observations about Putrajaya’s refusal to co-operate on several fronts.

WikiLeaks was founded by Australian journalist Julian Assange, now being held by the Scotland Yard for sexual assault charges in Sweden. Australian commentators have compared Assange’s charges to Anwar, who was sacked as deputy prime minister in September 1998 on sodomy and corruption charges.

US President Barack Obama has called the WikiLeaks’ actions “deplorable” in phone calls to his counterparts who agreed that it should not hurt ties with Washington. US diplomats in Kuala Lumpur have also expressed the same sentiment to Wisma Putra although they have also made their concerns known about Anwar’s sodomy trial.

Anwar, who now leads the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact which rules four states, has yet to publicly comment on the latest revelations by the Australian daily.

The daily said the cable on Anwar was one of several that deals with the highly explosive private views of senior Singaporean officials, including claims that “Malaysia is in a ‘confused and dangerous’ state due to its incompetent politicians”.

Singapore and Malaysia acrimoniously parted ways in August 1965 after just two years as a single country. Both now have strong ties but do not allow each other’s newspapers to be distributed in the country.

The cable that dealt with Anwar’s sodomy case was dated November 2008 and said: “The Australians said that Singapore’s intelligences services and [Singaporean elder statesman] Lee Kuan Yew have told ONA in their exchanges that opposition leader Anwar ‘did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted’.”

ONA stands for Australia’s Office of National Intelligence.

The document also stated the Singaporeans told ONA they made this assessment on the basis of “technical intelligence”, which was likely to relate to intercepted communications, the newspaper said.

“ONA assessed, and their Singapore counterparts concurred, ‘it was a set-up job and he probably knew that, but walked into it anyway’,” the cable states.

 Sodomy is illegal in Malaysia and carries a jail sentence of up to 20 years. Anwar was jailed for six years in 1999 on charges of corruption and sodomy but was later freed in 2004.

His former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan complained of sodomy in June 2008 but Anwar had maintained the case against him was fabricated and trumped up by his political enemies who fear his political resurgence.

Saiful, a university dropout, had admitted to meeting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak before making his complaint but said the meeting was about a scholarship.

Anwar’s sodomy trial has been postponed to next year but a prosecutor was earlier dropped after she was accused of having an affair with the 25-year- old Saiful.

Earlier this month, Australian politician Nick Xenophon travelled to Malaysia to observe Anwar’s ongoing court proceedings, which many Australians believe is a set-up.

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